


Lay Back, Get Waterlogged

by dear_monday



Category: Dark Shadows (2012)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Ghosts, Identity Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-04
Updated: 2012-06-04
Packaged: 2017-11-06 19:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/422442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dear_monday/pseuds/dear_monday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maggie Evans dies the day they rip her out of the heart of her family and lock her away like an animal. She fights tooth and nail when they try to shock her into braindead compliance (she's not crazy, she's <i>not</i>), but the wide-eyed little girl she used to be is dead and gone. But if there's one thing Josette has taught her, it's that dead things don't always stay that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lay Back, Get Waterlogged

Maggie Evans dies the day they rip her out of the heart of her family and lock her away like an animal. She fights tooth and nail when they try to shock her into braindead compliance (she's not crazy, she's _not_ ), but the wide-eyed little girl she used to be is dead and gone.

 

Years later, riding an empty train towards a fresh start, that's why she chooses a new name for herself. She is not Maggie Evans anymore, and wearing a dead girl's name seems odd and morbid. Trying to force herself back into it is uncomfortable - it doesn't fit her, pinching in some places and too large in others like the smart new shoes on her feet. The name she plucks from an advertisement on the wall, however, fits like a glove. _Victoria_ , for victory, because she's free and her time is her own once again. And _Winters_ , for the chilly hardness she has learnt to wear like armor.

 

She gathers the coldness around her when Elizabeth tests her - she judges it carefully, just enough to seem composed but not unfriendly. She lets a little of it drop away when she's introduced to Carolyn, but her effort is wasted. Carolyn has her own mask, a sneering, drawling thing that only serves to make her seem painfully young. She's so caught up in what she wants so desperately to be that Victoria's existence barely ripples the surface of her little world. Victoria has nothing to fear from her, at least.

 

The little boy, David, is a different matter altogether. His eyes cut right through Victoria, demanding her honesty. He's an uncomfortable, insistent reminder of Maggie. All that stands between him and what killed Maggie Evans is his family, and Victoria promises herself then and there that she will do whatever she has to do in order to protect him, should it ever come to that. She rather likes the idea that Maggie died so another child doesn't have to.

 

But if there's one thing Josette has taught her, it's that dead things don't always stay that way.

 

Victoria Winters becomes stronger and more defined every day as she builds her new self bit by bit, adding detail and shading and little quirks as she finds them. She builds to last. Victoria Winters is as strong and unshakeable as the foundations of Collinwood itself.

 

Or so she thinks, at least.

 

Barnabas shatters her completely, breaking Victoria Winters into a million bright shards like the ones that make up the chandelier in the entrance hall. Her fresh, newly-formed self drops away like dead leaves. And just like that, she is Maggie Evans again. _I know you_ , she thinks. _Yes._ _I remember you_.

 

Over her shoulder, Josette smiles.


End file.
